The Lord Botetourt and James River cross country teams will be among a plethora of schools attending Saturday’s annual Knights Crossing event. Cave Spring is the host for the distance running extravaganza at Green Hill Park in west Roanoke County.
This is the 22nd annual Knights Crossing event and it will be one of the largest cross country invitationals ever held in Southwest Virginia. There will be a total of 11 different races beginning with the Joe LaRocco open 5K race at 8 a.m. for men and women, and ending with an unlimited girls and boys “Gold Race” 5K at 2:30 p.m.
“We are very excited about this year’s invitational that currently has 105 high schools and 62 middle school teams attending,” said Cave Spring’s Tommy Maguire. “We already have well over 2,000 runners entered to race on September 12. This will be one of our largest Knights Crossing Cross Country Invitationals yet and one of the largest athletic events held in the Roanoke Valley this year.”
“Red” races for Virginia public schools and out of state teams will begin with a girls’ race at 10:45 a.m. and a boys’ race at 11:30 a.m. “Black” races for Virginia public schools and all private schools will take off at noon for the girls and 12:45 p.m. for the boys.
“We have 22 teams traveling from North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia,” said Maguire. “We also have several teams making the trip from Richmond and Northern Virginia areas. Every local school will be represented on Saturday. This historic year also looks to be one of the fastest fields in our 22 years of hosting.”
